Parties Can’t Agree on Briefing Schedule in AT&T Lake Tahoe Lead Cable Case

California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and AT&T can’t agree on a briefing schedule for the alliance’s lawsuit to enjoin AT&T’s abandoned telecom cables from discharging lead into the waters deep below the surface of Lake Tahoe (see 2308180001), they said in separate case management statements Friday (docket 2:21-cv-00073) in U.S. District Court for Eastern California in Sacramento. The parties do agree on a Sept. 14 deadline for Rule 26(a)(1) initial disclosures, and an Oct. 9 due date for pleading amendments but agree on little else, said their statements.

The court wants to set a weeklong bench trial for fall 2024 but is reluctant to set a specific date until there’s consensus on a briefing schedule, the alliance and AT&T said in their separate statements. Defendant AT&T proposes a June 10 deadline for completing fact and expert discovery, and accuses the plaintiff alliance of twice reneging on previously agreed-on due dates. The alliance proposes an Aug. 15 deadline for completing discovery.

The lawsuit alleges violations of the 1976 Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. AT&T contends the lead cables pose no harm to humans or the environment.

There’s good cause for the alliance’s uncertainty about the briefing schedule, it told the court. “As the Court is aware, this case involves a cable that is currently situated at the bottom of Lake Tahoe at depths exceeding 100 feet, and running approximately 8 miles long,” it said. As part of its fact discovery, the alliance “will need to send divers along the length of this cable, and at various points, collect photographs and samples,” it said.

The timing proposed by the parties in their respective case management conference statements, “upon further reflection, is challenging given that the time for fact discovery is primarily dominated by the winter months, when it may be impossible or unsafe to access the cable,” said the alliance.

The alliance also needs to identify, vet and hire experts, “coordinate an inspection and sampling schedule,” and then execute that schedule, it said. The alliance is a nonprofit “with limited resources,” the plaintiff said. It lacks the funding that “grants the flexibility” that AT&T enjoys, it said. “As with many environmental cases, this case will require laboratory testing, analysis, and review,” which will then inform “next steps in the discovery process,” it said. Each of those steps “takes time,” and many are beyond the alliance’s “ability to control,” it said.

“To be clear,” the alliance “has a keen interest in resolving this case as quickly as possible,” it said. But the “practical realities” of collecting evidence from a submerged cable and the waters surrounding it “should be taken into account when setting deadlines in this case,” it said. Though the alliance “will endeavor to adhere” to its proposed schedule, it may be necessary “to seek a continuance” into the summer 2024 diving season, it said.